Vision Statement

To fundamentally evolve the pickleball industry - providing players the highest performing equipment and the best value while simultaneously lessening the sport's impact on the environment for future generations.

Performance, Value and Environmental impact.

That's the Reload Triple Threat.

Who/What/Why

We came to pickleball from an engineering + design background.

We spent our careers creating new products, improving old ones and sometimes jumping out of a proverbial airplane and assembling a parachute on the way down.

Like many players who are addicted to the game - we noticed that the grit on our paddles wore out VERY FAST.

Given our science background we decided to analyze this – and we realized that pickleball paddles lose up to 50% of their surface grit in 50 hours of play.

This inspired us to start working on a solution - and we had the right mix of curiousity, engineering and entrepreneurial mindset to start innovating. We spent over a year pushing for a better way, a way to make a product that ticked all the right boxes. And we're excited for you to play with it.

Team

Nick Bicanic

CEO

Nick started mixing sports and tech at an early age. He played Basketball at the European Junior Championships and was also awarded a young Nobel prize for optical athletic movement analysis, prior to studying at Cambridge University.

He is a multi-award winning filmmaker and he founded, ran and sold several companies – raising funds from high profile VC firms like Google Ventures and Lockheed Martin Ventures.

He invents things regularly and has more than 10 patents in the fields of Camera Accessories, Augmented Reality and Sporting Goods.

He started playing pickleball in 2022 bringing the first net
and equipment to a small Adriatic town becoming the official ambassador for Pickleball Croatia. He also plays guitar, sings, windsurfs, skis, eats granny smith apples and corrects typos in emails.

instagram.com/nick_bicanic

Troy Hamner

COO

Troy has played pickleball off and on for the last 12+ years, medaling all three events at the 2013 USAPA Nationals, and also enjoys surfing, beach tennis, running, hiking, camping, pilates, and solving problems in unique and interesting ways.

His professional experience spans the business cycle from the earliest stages to the latest. After leaving an early stage VC/Accelerator, he generated and implemented an idea for a biomedical diagnostics startup, scaling the new business unit to $60M revenue and ~70 staff before exploring management consulting at LEK.

His deep commitment to community building, usually centered around sporting and outdoor recreational activities, was seeded while achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.

instagram.com/troyhamner

Sponsored Athletes

Christine Maddox

PPA/MLP

Christine is a former professional tennis player and All-American #1 ranked NCAA doubles player for Pepperdine University.

She currently plays professional pickleball in the PPA and is a Major League Pickleball alternate.

When she is not smashing balls on court, she is a Sports Medicine Reiki Master and Herbalist.

instagram.com/thereal....maddox/

Branding

When making a new performance sporting product it's tempting to think that performance is all that matters.

This is only partially true.

Sure - if your product is bad - no amount of fancy visuals will save you - but what something is called, what the product looks like, how it feels when you touch it, what kind of envelope it ships in, what the photographs, animations and video look like - all these things and more affect us deeply in every brand we ever interact with.

Creating a new brand from scratch requires no small amount of creativity, endurance and attention to detail.

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And this is not something anybody can do alone. As the saying goes - it takes a village. And our particular village was populated by some key individuals and groups.

Creative Direction

Identity and Graphic Design

Marko and his team at akeo.com have worked with the founders a number of times over the years. For the Reload brand they helped create an overall aesthetic style that bridges the digital and physical realms in exquisite fashion, raising the bar for any brand to come.

Visual Storytelling/Style

The style and attitude of our photo and video shoots and commercials (in front and behind the camera) were shaped by award-winning creative & actress Dominika Juillet (@dominikapounce). Her work on both sides of the camera has been featured by WWD, Samsung and the official Scion Innovatour.
Also don't stand anywhere in front of her when there's a pickleball near her forehand ;)

Photography

Jeremy Jackson hits a mean two hander on the Pickleball court but also happens to be a very talented Los Angeles based sports photographer. He was a key part of our visual mic drop.

Advisors

Thanks for all the ongoing guidance.

  • Alex Hamner
  • Brett Warner
  • Luke Wathen

Industry Partnerships

This list is ongoing and evolving.

PR + Media

Press Releases, articles and assorted mentions can be found here.
Alternatively check out our Instagram: @reloadpickleball

Intellectual Property

For a comprehensive list of intellectual property owned by Reload please refer to this page.

Contact us

If you have a question you could check the FAQ but if that doesn't help you by all means reach out to us:

reload@reloadpickleball.com

Or try instagram.

Work with us

If you are looking to become an affiliate reach out and let us know.

If you have questions about licensing start here.